Founder@ Interview
Interview with Nick Spiller
“ If your product provides real value, users will come..” – Nick Spiller
Today we feature Nick Spiller, the founder at QuickTest. We hear their story in their own words, their successes, their challenges and their insights.
Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you please tell us a little bit about you and what you do?
I’m Nick Spiller, Director of QuickTest.
I have extensive work in the Fintech industry having previously formed the founding team of LOOT, a student bank, which RBS bought a majority share of in 2019. I still maintain a hands-on approach and regularly assists with feature definition and design. I’ve also designed for brands such as Bó, Natwest, Gymshark, & Missguided.
A great introduction and start to this interview. Can you please tell us, how did you start, from what age, and what made you decide to change direction and start?
I’ve worked as the Head of Product Design at a FTSE 100 bank, and have led numerous design teams at startups.
While working in these teams I was frustrated by my design team budget allocation that went towards research platforms. I decided to make one myself, but affordable for startups and freelance designers.
Thank you for that insight. So can you tell us…What does your business do and where is your company based?
Based in London, QuickTest is an affordable user testing platform for startup design teams and freelancers. Research and testing phases are essential steps when designing an app to ensure designers interact with the. QuickTest allows users to upload up to four designs, and test them remotely and in-person with users. The application also allows design teams to guerrilla test with potential customers, and their wider company for fast feedback.
What’s the story behind your success? What led to your aha moment? how did you get to where you are now?
Whilst working for a tightly budgeted startup, securing a budget for user testing was always hard as all competitor products, such as UsabilityHub & TestingTime have pricing plans which can hit thousands of £’s per month.
So, I enlisted the help of a developer and after a few days we had built a basic prototype product.
The app was a simple no-thrills prototype, created with no branding, bootstrapped code, and limited functionality. This early-stage product validated my assumption that an application like this would be valuable to our internal design team.
The MVP proved invaluable to our testing methods and even allowed the design team to help the wider company feel included in the design process by asking their opinion on designs.
As the MVP was so engrained in our team process, a few months later I decided to invest the time to fully develop the concept and release it to assist other design teams, as a SAAS product.
Thank you for sharing that. What’s been your life’s biggest lesson so far?
Initially, my first struggle was to find a developer with the attention to detail, and the same desire to create an app with an exceptional UX. After weeks of development, bug squashing, and tweaks we delivered a product that fulfilled our vision.
We continuously had to strip back our initial proposition, with our BETA version, balancing cost with customer impact.
Knowing your goal, and working towards it.
If you were to go back in time, what piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
Create a go-to market strategy, don’t just expect your product will be an overnight success.
We’re nearly halfway through our interview so it’s a great time to ask how does your business run. What three tools make your business run better?
My business needs team members who care, and have a passion to build something amazing.
I would be lost without Sketch tool, or my MacBook.
Other features we’re developing include
-Sketch & Figma Plugin
-User testing panel
-Additional survey functionality
What do you know now that you wished you had known before?
Knowing your goal, and working towards it.
Quickstart App
What has been your greatest or proudest achievement or moment?
I was the youngest design director at Natwest/RBS, and had founded a Fintech bank.
To finish our inspire questions…”We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others.” If there was one positive thing you would say to someone to inspire and empower them what would it be and why?
If your product provides real value, users will come.
“Thank you it has been great learning more about your founder story and QuickTest”
To learn more about QuickTest Visit https://apps.apple.com/us/app/quicktest-user-testing/id1503663155
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